


Killer Quest

by AuroraKant



Series: Batfam Week2020 [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Batfam Week 2020, Batkids Age Reversal, But it is not a Major Plot Point, Damian Wayne is the Wraith, Damian is such a dad, Dick Grayson is Robin, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Reverse Age AU, Reverse Batfam AU, There is character death mentioned in this thing, between him and Dick, reverse batfam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23108632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraKant/pseuds/AuroraKant
Summary: Damian was happy hunting the criminals his Father wouldn't put down and hiding away in Gotham until the Batman accepted that the way of the Wraith was the right one. He didn't count on Dick Grayson standing in front of his door one day - a door to an apartment that nobody should know about - asking to be trained by the great Damian Wayne himself. His life only got weirder from there on out.Day 4: Robin's | De-Aging |Reverse Batfam AU[This can be read and understood without reading Part 1 of the series]
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Duke Thomas & Damian Wayne
Series: Batfam Week2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657645
Comments: 18
Kudos: 238





	Killer Quest

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> We have reached the turning point of the Batfam Week!  
> So many thanks for the response to yesterdays fic! You guys are amazing!  
> This one takes place in the Universe of "Batman, Falcon, and the Foil of Man" but should be understood on its own as well!  
> I hope you enjoy it!

Damian woke up to the sound of knocking. Which was weird. His safe house was in the Narrows, an utterly disgusting part of Gotham, an utterly disgusting city. You couldn’t even really call it a ‘house’. It was more like two rooms behind a cheap Chinese corner store without an AC or decent pluming.

So, knocking. Unlikely. And ever since the Pit Damian had made sure people knew not to annoy him. Who was he trying to fool? Even before his death and un-death people had been better off not getting on his nerves. Maybe it was Duke. The idiot was the only one of his Fathers so called family that still bothered him.

Groaning Damian pushed himself off the mattress on the floor that served as his bed, after the knocking didn’t stop even after Damian had tried to drain it out with a pillow. The room spun when he finally got up, a mixture from sleep-deprivation and a lifestyle more fit for a devil than a mortal. Could he even still claim mortality after he died and came back? It was too early for this.

“Thomas. If you are standing in front of this door right now, you better start running. I will run you through with my blade if that means a few more hours of sleep!”

The voice that answered him wasn’t the deep baritone of Damian’s favorite – and if you asked him – only brother. No, instead it was the squeaky voice of a kid. A small kid by the sound of it:

“I… um… I am not Duke, Mr. Wraith. I am Richard, no, Dick, and I wanted to ask you a question. If you could be so nice and open the door?”

If asked, Damian would deny it, but the curiosity got to him. His mother would have his head for this behavior, but his mother was dead, killed by his own blade like she deserved. Just like Ra’s. Just like most of the League. Damian opened the door.

In front of it stood a little bird. Robin. The child Father had taken in last year, after that tragedy at the circus. Damian had never met him personally, only evaded them when Father got that silly idea in his head that he must detain Damian. As if Damian wasn’t saving this drenched up city one killed bastard at a time. This child, this thing, dared to smile at him, with a nervous tilt to its chin.

“What? And I better hope your answer satisfies me, since you will be permanently parted from your head, should that not be the case”

The child’s smile faltered. Good. And yet it didn’t turn around and ran away. Instead it squared its puny little shoulders and said:

“Yes, Mr. Wraith, sir. I am Dick. Robin. As you probably already know. But- I-“

“Speak!”

“I want to be your apprentice!”

Whatever kind of answer Damian had expected, that was not it.

“You want to what?”

“I want to be your apprentice, Mr. Wraith, sir. I want to learn under you. Batman doesn’t need me, and he already taught be the basics. He also taught me that it is important to always learn from the best and I heard that you are the best after I punched Deathstroke last week and anyways-“

“Shut it…”

Where Damian might have sounded angry only moments earlier, he no longer did. The lost sleep and the tiresome voice of this pest in front of him grated on his nerves. But what was he to do? He couldn’t send the child away. That would only be playing in Father’s hands, especially when the child went and got himself killed searching for some other teacher. Damian could bring him back to the Manor himself, but that would mean willfully stepping into Father’s territory and that meant risking arrest or an interaction with Drake. Damian didn’t know what the worse prospect was.

But he couldn’t keep it. That much was clear. While Damian might be the best swordsman on this planet, that didn’t mean that he planned on taking on pupils. He was a vigilante, a hero willing to do the un-doable, and not a free kids-dojo. Maybe he could lose the child at an orphanage, or a police station, someplace more likely for Batman to find his brat.

“And?”

“Hypothetically, what is going to happen if I send you away?”

“I am gonna go and ask Deathstroke. He is a bit weird sometimes, but he said he would teach me if I asked”

Damnit. Deathstroke would never be allowed to get his hands on this child. Damian had rules and morals and he would rather swallow a steel blade before handing a child to that pervert.

“I suppose it is useless to ask why I shouldn’t just leave you outside of an orphanage?”

“I would be back tomorrow. Or the day after. But I would be back”

“Death?”

“Bruce would be reeeeeeeealy upset”

Damian stared at the child. The child stared back. There was silence between them and noise everywhere else.

“Okay. I will train you. But be aware: I am a harsh teacher and I will punish you.”

“I think you’ll be surprised!”

The kid grinned up at him, pushing inside the apartment. Only now did Damian notice the duffle back slung across his narrow shoulders.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Well, I have to sleep somewhere, right? And I can’t stay with Bruce when I train with you. I mean, it’s the Wraith and Robin now, isn’t it?”

“Just… put your stuff somewhere and let me sleep. When I wake up I want to see 200 push-ups!”

“Aye, aye, Captain!”

“And call me Damian, brat!”

“Yes, Mr. Wraith, sir!”

“Whatever…”

Duke stared at him over the rim of his burning hot coffee. Damian tried to ignore him, reading the business part of the Gotham Gazette.

“So…”

“Hn?”

“When were you gonna tell me, that the brat was hiding out at yours?”

“I do not know what you mean, Thomas”

“The brat. Dick. You know, B’s partner. The tiny terror that is currently terrorizing the poor lady at the donut counter. The kid that literally greeted me as ‘uncle Duke’ not ten minutes ago. That’s what I mean”

“Oh, that”

Damian could see how Duke’s eyebrow wanted to escape from its proper place on his forehead. The man was what now? 27? Huh, Duke was the only one of the children Father had taken in that had reached that age without dying. Maybe Drake would be the second, but Damian wouldn’t bet on that. The second Falcon had been a failure. Even Father had known that and send him to space. Duke, on the other hand, wore his League membership with pride and grace. Damian had always known why the Signal was the only one of his so-called siblings he liked.

“Yeah, that. Bruce is out of his mind with worry. He pulled both me and Tim from our current… occupations and made Cass swear to be extra cautious. You’re just lucky he doesn’t know where you live. Hell, even I don’t know that”

“And it will stay that way”

There was laughter on the opposite side of the coffee shop they were meeting at, and when both men turned their heads to see the source of the commotion all they saw was Dick, who had managed to charm both the employees currently at work into giving him free donuts and an old lady into buying him a hot chocolate.

“Why is he staying with you, by the way?”

“He just showed up one day and threatened to annoy me to death if I didn’t let him”

“Aha”

“Hn”

“And what if I just take him with me, now? You know, get him out of your desperately-in-need-of-a-haircut hair and bring him back to B?”

“No”

Duke sent him one of his looks again, but Damian could only scoff. Duke wouldn’t understand. In the last month and a half, the little pest had managed to eat his way into Damian’s non-existent heart. Damian had learnt a great many things in that time: A two room apartment may be big enough for one almost thirty year old vigilante, but it wasn’t big enough for a vigilante and a hyperactive kid; Children needed proper meals besides just cereal and Chinese take-out or they got sick; Dick was actually capable of keeping up with Damian’s training schedule which kind of took the fun out of torturing him; and nightmares were a bitch but so much more bearable with a warm body by his side.

Honestly? Damian liked the child. And even if Dick was as of yet not ready to join Damian in the Wraith’s kind of justice, he showed great potential. Dick would make a wonderful Robin to fly by his side.

“Any reason for that?”

Damian hated the way Duke pretended to know. Pff, as if. But still Duke’s presence was more bearable than that of anyone else in this inane cult his Father had created around himself. They were friends – or something similar enough – for over ten years now, beginning shortly after Damian’s exodus from the family and Duke’s introduction into it. He had liked that Brown girl, too, the first Batgirl, but since she died at the same time he did, there were no tears lost.

“That is my business. Important is just, that Richard Grayson is under my protection. And no matter what Father wants to do about that, it will stay that way”

“Hm… Okay, but-“

“Hey!”

Dick had reappeared at their table, his mouth twisted in that vile thing he called grinning, his cheeks dirty with the remains of various sugary baked goods. They would have to train later, to keep the child from running across the walls in his sugar high.

“Welcome back, Richard”

“Hi, Dick. I see you managed to get something for yourself?”

“Yes, Uncle D! I had so much chocolate. It was amazing. Great. Absolutely breathtaking. You should try it sometime: Three chocolate donuts, honey glaze, Nutella, salted caramel, and a red velvet cupcake. That’s what heaven tastes like!”

The child could talk. Sometimes Dick would talk them through the night or well into the evening, when Damian hadn’t had prior engagements. He would recount the most trivial things: His favorite color, the way the circus smelled, why Alfred’s cookies would always be the best, how Cass had showed him this really cool handstand trick… and so on and on. He never stopped. But over the last month Damian had realized that he didn’t miss the silence nearly as much as he had anticipated. Of course, a moment of quiet and calm would be deeply appreciated, but whenever Dick fell silent Damian missed the mindless babble. 

“Wow, kid. That _does_ sound amazing”

And Duke probably meant it. Disgusting. No, Damian would stick with green tea and shortbread. Cultivated things.

“Yes! It was. And, you know, that is not even the best of it, Duke. Damian and I…”

“What?”

The short halt in Dick’s ramble had made sure that Damian returned to attention in mere seconds. His eyes scanned the café for danger, noting every strangers position, every potential weapon. Across from him, he could see Duke do the same.

“We…”

Dick’s voice was a tiny whisper. Not a scared one, just tiny, quiet. No danger, then. Something in Damian uncoiled, something he hadn’t even known was tense.

“Yes?”

“We are the Three D’s. The Triple D’s. Dick. Damian. Duke!”

A deep and regretful sigh escaped Damian. Why did he even try? Why? Every time he worried, it was something dumb like that. The child would be the death of him. Again. Of course, that was the moment Duke decided to start laughing. The man tousled Dick’s hair and made the dark locks even more impossible for Damian to comb through. What had he done to deserve this?

“You can have him, Thomas. I don’t want to keep Richard anymore. He is all yours!”

“Hey!”

“No, thanks. I think, I’m gonna let him keep you on your toes a bit longer!”

Just where, Allah, had he gone wrong?

Robin was ready. After four months of hiding out in his tiny apartment and daily training sessions, school lessons, and evasion maneuvers Robin had proved capable of fighting alongside the Wraith when it was time to take down the truly dirty scum Gotham had to offer. Just like the Wraith had taken down the Joker, after he killed the third Falcon, he would take down Black Mask, Mad Hatter, the Penguin, and all the other bastards. And now he had a tiny helper by his side.

A tiny helper who was currently in the tight clutches of a nightmare. 

They shared Damian’s mattress since there was no room for a bed or even two. Being an illegal vigilante without the Batman’s founding did that to your housing situation. It also meant that it was impossible to hide nightmares from each other. People like them weren’t blessed with the deep sleep of the happily protected.

But every time Dick had bad dreams, Damian struggled with what he was supposed to do. Waking the child could lead to injury and doing nothing felt morally wrong.

Next to him, a whimper escaped Dick and what was left of Damian’s heart made the decision for him.

“Hey. Richard. Hey!”

Nothing. It had to be a horrible dream to be able to keep Dick caught so deeply. Damian went on to gently shake the boy’s shoulder, hoping the motion would do its job. The only thing that achieved was for Dick to cry out. Bad plan. Damian went back to trying to sooth Dick with just his voice.

“Hey. Everything is alright. It is just a dream. Or a bad memory. But in both cases it can no longer harm you-“

Eventually the sound of rapid breathing transformed into silent crying, and before Damian could really notice that fact, bony arms slung themselves across his midriff and a snotty face was pushed against his chest.

“Disgusting, Richard. But then again, you just survived a battle of minds!”

No longer having to be afraid to touch, Damian started to pat the tiny back of that tiny child Damian planned on taking with him on the streets. What was he thinking? What had Father been thinking all those years ago?

Neither Damian’s words nor his physical closeness seemed to calm Dick down, however. After the boy wouldn’t settle down for minutes – that felt like years – Damian was almost ready to call it quits. Normally Dick cried only a little after nightmares, normally, one hug and Dick would be back to his standard happy little self, but not today. And if Damian couldn’t deal with a crying child how could he deal with one that was in pain? Because he would get hurt out there. All of them got hurt out there. Every single one of them. And most of them would die out there as well.

“Please tell me what I can do, Richard”

At first, there was no response, but just as Damian was ready to move on, to try yet again something that would bear no fruit, Dick shifted. His voice was small and frightened, frequently interrupted by hiccups and snivels, but he was talking again. He was back in the room with Damian, no longer imprisoned in his dream:

“I… you… it was so dark, Dami… so, so dark…”

“Yes? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to?”

Damian would be more than happy, if Dick decided against sharing his fears. Now that the child had calmed down enough to at least breath regularly again, Damian felt as if he had reached the maximum of his cuddling capacity. He was never one for close companionship or platonic physical contact, and neither his childhood at his mother’s side or the teenage years in Batman’s shadow had really established any need for that in him. Now that he had a child on his own, he found that most children craved cuddles and hugs a lot more than he ever had. Or maybe that was just Dick.

“I… no… you were dead in the dream, Dami. Dead… please don’t leave me…”

Suddenly the room washed away leaving only green and pain and confusion. There were screams in his ears, his mother’s soft voice whispering something, a man yelling, so much pain. Why was he in so much pain? Voices. Someone yelling his name. Hands touching his body, his face.

“Damian! Please!”

Dick. It was Dick’s voice. He was yelling. And crying. And…

“Damian! Tati!”

Damian snapped back into his body, the green ebbing away, leaving fire ants under his skin. He wanted to run, to hurt, to create pain. But there was only a child in front of him, his child. It felt as if he was fighting against a steel band cutting off his airflow, when he forced one breath after the other.

Dick was kneeing next to him now, his small shoulders hunched, one of his hands raised as if he had just tried to touch Damian. The moon shone its meager light through the only window of the room, painting the tear tracks on Dick’s cheeks silver. They stared at each other for what seemed like years until Damian rushed forward and pressed the small body against his chest.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t want to frighten you, Richard”

His voice didn’t sound like his own, all rough and pained. But it was enough for Dick. The boy relaxed in his position, hugging Damian back just as tightly.

“I’m sorry… this is my fault… please don’t go, Dami, please…”

“You don’t have to be sorry… I love you, Richard. And I am never leaving you. Never”

Damian just hoped that this was a promise he didn’t have to go back on. He just wished they could always stay like this: Safe, in their fucked-up apartment behind the Chinese corner store, bathed in moonlight, together. Safe. He just wanted them to be safe.

Batman hadn’t yet managed to catch them. Yet being the operative word here. They were pushing three months of the Wraith and Robin partnership and even though Robin refused to kill, he busted quite a few heads together with Damian.

They were currently stalking Black Mask, planning to take him down next week when Roman would be alone for a period of 30 minutes for the first time in over half a year. The Wraith and his trusted sword would be ready to do what was necessary while Robin’s job was to make sure that Damian really did have the half an hour he was promised.

All their smaller busts had followed a similar method and it worked well. At least for them. Damian was quite sure that the criminals of Gotham were cursing out this tiny bird that had joined the Wraith.

But their luck had to run out at some point. When they reached their designated perch, a shadow was already waiting for them. Batman.

Damian had managed to hide in the city for almost two years now, making sure that his safe houses were in places Father would never link to the little brat he remembered his child being, and their meetings since then had always been short, loaded with pain, distrust, disappointment and – on a few notable instances – explosions. This was the first time they saw each other since Dick had run away from Bruce’s care right into Damian’s.

It was too late to turn around now, even if he wanted to. He had no chance of outrunning the Bat with Robin by his side. And he would never, ever let Dick to be grabbed by Father again.

“Batman”

“Wraith. Robin?”

Robin had stayed silent, trying to hide behind the dark pants of Damian’s suit but they all knew it was fruitless.

“Hi, B”

Father smiled, then, and Damian had to stifle a surge of jealousy. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t let his hurt feelings harm his relationship with Dick. He wasn’t his Father.

“What do you want? I haven’t killed anyone recently”

Maybe cutting straight to the point would make this end faster. Maybe, if all of this escalated into a physical fight Robin would have enough time to escape and hole up in one of their safe spaces until Damian could follow. Batman was no longer smiling.

“You know what I want. You have someone that shouldn’t be with you. I let it go when it was only the two of you hiding out in one of your secret lairs, but this has gone too far, Da- Wraith”

“Let me be clear, Batman: You might be my Father, but you have stopped being able to tell me what to do years ago. Robin came to my side by his own free will, making a choice, and until he stops making that choice there is nothing you can do to separate us!”

As soon as all of these words had left his mouth, Damian could feel both Batman and Robin staring. He hadn’t meant to say so much, but now that he had said it, he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.

“Damian. Don’t do this. Don’t do something you might not come back from! Give Robin back and I'll let you leave Gotham without repercussions. Just… please don’t force my hand!”

“Names, Father. They have meaning. You better remember that!”

“And no! I don’t want to go back!”

Robin had been silent until now, probably caught in the wonder and fear of seeing Batman. But now that he had gained their attention, he wasn’t ready to let it go again:

“I want to stay with Wraith! He is cool and nice, and he treats me like a little brother! And the… the Manor is stuffy and big, and I don’t think Black Bird or Black Bat really like me… they all want Falcon back… and… and I like Wraith!”

He was stumbling, a little boy, really, and yet it felt as if Dick had just confessed his love to Damian. This child, his child, really truly appreciated everything Damian had done for him. Damian didn’t know if he would ever be able to face Dick leaving him. Was that what all parents felt when their children started to grow up?

“Robin, it is a bit more complicated than that…”

“I don’t understand why it has to be. Robin stays with me, Father. Let’s go, our business here is finished!”

Interrupting his Father, Damian turned around and signaled for Robin to follow him off the roof. The first few minutes of their tactical retreat happened in absolute silence, while Damian obsessively checked if Batman was following them. Robin was lost deep in thought and Damian could feel the threats of anxiety slowly working through his brain. It was after they passed the City Hall that Robin finally spoke again:

“So, I guess that means we have to move?”

Damian let go of a breath he hadn’t even known he was holding:

“Yeah, that means we have to move”

The sun was rising over Tokyo, their stop for the week. They had placed themselves near the top of the Tokyo Tower, eating ice cream, and staring at the red light glistering in the bay. The last few months had been adventurous, escaping Gotham being its own sort of hell trip.

And now they were on the run. But Damian had made sure that Dick would have a more balanced experience with being an anti-hero on the road than the one Damian had had after his teenage rebellion. The fact that Dick had grown up in a circus without a permanent residence did certainly help.

But for now, that meant, not more than one country in one week, not more than four nights a week spent working, and ice cream at least once in every country they visited. Or fulfilled contracts in.

Damian knew that Dick was conducting some sort of private research on the side, but it had still come as a surprise when Dick had asked for this early morning ice cream session.

“So, what did you want to talk about, Little Bird?”

“I think we should go and visit Somalia next”

“Huh? Any reasons for that you want to share with me?”

At that Dick looked at him and Damian could see the raised eyebrow through the domino, before Dick decided that the city was much more interesting to look at than Damian.

“I have a feeling”

“A feeling?”

“Yeah, a feeling we might find a lost bird somewhere over there”

Interesting.

“Well, then. I guess, I’ll have to find a contractor who is willing to pay for our little excursion”

“Yes. Oh, is my tongue blue?”

With that Dick turned back towards him and stuck out his, indeed, very blue tongue. Damian didn’t even try to hide his bemused smile, instead he pulled Dick closer, into a one-armed hug, looking back out over the red tinged sea.

“Yeah, it is, Little Bird”

**Author's Note:**

> Robin - Dick Grayson  
> Batgirl - Stephanie Brown (dead)  
> The Wraith - former (first) Falcon - Damian Wayne  
> The Signal - Duke Thomas  
> Black Bird - former (second) Falcon - Tim Drake  
> Black Bat - former (second) Batgirl - Cassandra Cain  
> Falcon, the third - Jason Todd (dead)  
> ??? - Barbara Gorden, currently nine years old


End file.
